Vol 83, No 1 (2024)

The article presents the second section of a study devoted to identifying and describing models (patterns) of the strategy for designating the notions “husband, spouse” in the languages of Eurasia. The M-2 model “husband as a socionym” is described, within which a number of sub-groups are identified: M-2-1 husband as a “married man”, M-2-2 husband as “power and authority”, M-2-3 husband as a “master” and M-2-4 husband as an “old man”. The data plotted on the map of Eurasia demonstrate a preference for the latter model in Uralic languages, while Germanic languages and a number of others lean toward the M-2-3 and M-2-2 models. The less productive model M-3 is also described, within which the following groups are identified: M-3-1 husband as a “partner in harness”, M-3-2 husband as a “(legal) friend” (most common in the Scandinavian area, as well as productive for reflecting modern realities associated with changes in the very institution of marriage), and M-3-3 husband as a “wife” (reflects the tendency towards mirror designations of spouses). An analysis was carried out of the specific uses of synonymous lexemes (unexpectedly abundant in this sphere), which led to the assumption that the concept of “husband” (as well as that of “wife”) may not at all relate to the semantic domain “terms of kinship and properties” and, moreover, to the area of “basic” vocabulary. When analyzing specific cases of use, an orientation towards the communicative strategy of the speaker was also noted, both of the Ego itself (in this case, the wife), and of third parties, mentioning in their speech the fact of a certain relationship between Ego and a given person. In other words, it can be stated that if such uniquely (?) defined lexical zones as, for example, zoonyms are included in the language zone, the strategy of nomination and selection of the term meaning “husband” belongs rather to the speech zone.

This article is devoted to analysis of French sources of the play “Don Juan” by Molière (1665) which reproduces the famous Spanish plot about Don Juan. In the process of research, we demonstrate that Molière’s play dating back to the Italian reworkings of the play by Tirso de Molina, largely uses ready-made phrases and plot moves borrowed from the French comedies about Don Juan by playwrights Dorimon and Villiers, as well as the plays “The Salamanca Scholar, or Generous Enemies” by Paul Scarron (1655) and Pierre Corneille’s “The Liar” (1644). Interpretation of the significant coincidences found in plays allows us to conclude about the French theme in Moliere’s “Don Juan” which is informed by rethinking of a nobleman’s (gentleman’s) honor and the popularization of the social ideal of “honnête homme”.

The article examines several poetry collections of 1917–1922, which are of interest from the point of view of the representation of femininity both in the choice of titles and in the motif-figurative and thematic content. This period in the history of Russia is characterized by a crisis of previous social and cultural norms and behaviors, including traditional femininity, characterized by the emergence of new gender roles, for example, a revolutionary or a warrior woman. However, the analysis of women’s poetry books demonstrates that the former archetypes of femininity or recognizable types, for example, the image of a mother or a bohemian fatal beauty, not only do not disappear, but are also actualized, and women poets of the new wave boldly express their author’s subjectivity than their predecessors in the first decades of the twentieth century.

The article examines the semantic history of the connectors ne to and a ne to ‛or else’ used as so-called “threat” conjunctions, that is, used to express a threat in a situation that can be defined as a proposal of an ultimatum (Give me back my money, or else [“ne to”<“a ne to”>] I’ll sue!). The study is based on materials of the Russian National Corpus (RNC). According to the RNC, a ne to is primary in relation to ne to; the first one has been recorded since the 16th century and initially has in its meaning the components ‘hypothetical’ and ‘mutual exclusion’. The main clause, following the clause with a ne to and attached to it by a correlate, indicates a consequence — both negative and positive — from the situation described by the clause with a ne to; then a ne to is fixed in contexts where the main clause indicates a negative consequence and, in particular, a negative situation caused by a person (threat contexts). Gradually, the correlate in the main clause becomes more and more optional, the boundary between clauses is erased, and a ne to begins to be conceptualized as a connector that introduces a clause indicating a negative consequence.

The binomial connector ne to was once recorded in the RNC in the 17th century; with one exception in this unique context, a correlate is never used. Since the 19th century, in all the considered cases, it turns out to be completely synonymous with a ne to and can be considered as its variant.

This work continues the study and introduction into scientific circulation of the Oirat monument “Aršāni nomiyin tuuǰi” (“The Legend of the Nectar Teaching”). The article is the first to examine the plot of “The Wizard and His Horse” using the material from one of the unpublished lists of the monument, stored in the manuscript department of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The author explores the origin of the plot, citing its variants from ancient Indian, Tibetan and Mongolian literatures. The study of this plot is dictated by the need to further understand the content of this written monument. The article used descriptive, comparative-typological and comparative-contrast methods to identify general and local features of the plot in the works under consideration. The author came to the conclusion that the plot “The Wizard and His Horse” in “The Tale of the Nectar Teaching” was created on the basis of ancient Indian and Tibetan material, which is based on the “concept of illusoryness” and the “theory of instantaneity”, which occupy an important place in both Buddhism and ancient Indian philosophy. The results obtained in this article will be used by the author in preparing a typological index of the plots of the Oirat monument “Aršāni nomiyin tuuǰi” (“The Legend of the Nectar Teaching”).

In the following article, difficulties connected with the diversity of scientific approaches to the study of confession in different discourses (religious, legal, psychoanalytical, etc.) are discussed. The article deals with the difficulties associated with the diversity of scientific approaches to the study of confession in different discourses (religious, legal, psychoanalytic, etc.). It is stated that a theoretical understanding of literary (fictional) confession is conducted regarding already existing ideas about its Christian origins and circular transformations in European culture (from Augustine to Rousseau). The analysis of the structural and content features of literary confession with the support of M. M. Bakhtin’s aesthetics of verbal creation allows us to draw a line between the literary and the live word, including pseudo-confessional texts of the 19th and 21st centuries. It is confirmed that the concrete forms of embodiment of artistic confession (considering their diffuseness, generic specificity, and dependence on the author's individuality) resist typological study and require priority comprehension from the point of view of historical poetics. In conclusion, the groundlessness of the literary identification of confession with confessionalism is proved.